CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta said Wednesday that Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania is “fairly fluent” while speaking.
Fetterman, who is running for the seat being vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, suffered a stroke in May and claimed he had “no limits” in July despite apparent speech issues.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Republican nominee, has questioned whether Fetterman is able to serve as a senator as Fetterman has declined multiple debate invitations.
“Listening to [Fetterman], he sounded like he was fairly fluent in his speech, able to speak pretty clearly,” Gupta told “CNN Newsroom” guest host Bianna Golodryga. “Every now and then he would have a little word sort of mash-up, as he calls it.”
“The stroke, which was on May 13, so about five months ago, seemed to affect his ability to sort of comprehend or understand spoken speech,” Gupta said. “So what he seems to be doing, then, is then sort of relying more on his visual part of his brain.”
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“We don’t know what his medical records show, we don’t know how much this affected him immediately after his stroke, so what his recovery has looked like so far,” Gupta continued.
“And that’s not that unusual in someone who’s had a stroke that affects that part of the brain. … You can have recovery. Recovery can go for some time, certainly, but six months, 18 months, you know, whatever the time period may be, people may continue to have improvements.”
Fetterman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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A version of this article appeared on the Daily Caller News Foundation website.
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